Passenger lift for disk gasholders



Feb. 27, 1934. A LQRENTZ 1,948,527

PASSENGER LIFT FOR DISK GAS HOLDERS Filed March 7, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet l ill- .1

ci' r- I I. r l r l PM 7 b In M612 tor Feb. 27, 1934.

A. LORENTZ PASSENGER LIFT FOR DISK GAS HOLDERS Filed March 7, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inven for: x94 FRED L UREA T2 Feb. 27, 1934. LORENTZ 1,948,527

PASSENGER LIFT FOR DISK GAS HOLDERS Filed March 7, 1931 3 Shees-Sheet 3 Patented Feb. 27, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1,948,527 PASSENGER LIFT FOR DISK GASHOLDERS In order to render holders accessible, for

Alfred Lorentz, Mainz-Gustavsburg,

Application March '7, 1931, Serial and in Germany 5 Claims.

the interior of disk gas instance for the purpose of inspecting such interior, it is known to make use of a lift by means of which persons can 5 be lowered (into the disk from the roof of the holder. There is, how

ever, then experienced the diiiiculty that the height at which theg disk is located is not constant and may vary while the inspection takes plac Itherefore, in order to any moment, be able e. The lift cage must, be ready to be lifted at to follow every movement of the disk. The cabin must move downwardly when the disk is moving downw must move upwardly wardly, a particular being that the rope slackening, as otherw ardly, and it when the disk moves uppoint in the latter case must be prevented from ise troubles in the winch will arise and the holder structure may be damaged. With ordinary point woul winch is located on at times be as much a lifts the just-mentioned d require great attention on the part of the attendant at the winch, the more, as the the roof of the holder, therebelow, and may s one hundred meters and I even more below the roof.

It might be suggested in the present case of and use vices by means of stopped automatically (1 in ordinary'hoist construction,

which a lift cage can be that use could be made such devices as are known viz deat a certain definite point of its path, and to render this point variable, if

necessary. for these purposes -to safety of But the means employed hitherto cannot, in fact, be used because of the consideration service (danger of explosion), or

that must be given else because it is not possible to render them fit for overcoming the dition to the difficulties very great'heights, in adarising from the great variableness in the height of the disk. Attention must also be paid ling members, guide and the like cannot be as the path for the disk must be kept fre all parts which migh vertical movements of to the point that controlframes, controlling ropes housed within the holder, e from t interfere with the free the disk.

The present invention relates to a lift construction which answers fully the conditions stated, and provides an arrangement wherein the cage is capable of following automatically every movement of the disk, and dispenses completely with the heretofore necessary presence of an attendant at the winch. The characteristic features of the invention are, first, that by the change of tension in place when the disk the cage rope taking rises or falls a switching nenfabrik Augsburg March 13, 1930 deviceiis actuated which so acts upon the winch motor that the cage instantly follows the disk upwardly or downwardly, as the case may be, without, in fact, coming out of contact with it, and without causing any slackening in the cage rope, which might cause injury to the holder construction. For this latter purpose the rope may be conducted, for instance, over a roll lying in, or forming in the rope, a flat or straight loop, the position of which is altered more or less when the tension of the rope changes, as does then also the bending-through of the loop. Said roll is, connected, by means of suitable transmission members, with an electric switching device which connects the motor in different ways with the conducting wires, always in such a manner that the necessary operations are carried out.

The acting cause is, thus, the change of tension in the rope, as already stated, that change being caused, in turn, by the upward or downward movement of the disk in the holder. This manner of action is counter to that of the known controlling devices in which a change of tension inv the cage rope is used to exert a certain influence when the cage enters a station. With those older devices this change of tension is due merely to another load on the cage, and the purpose of the suitably designed controlling device is solely to equalize a change of the length of the rope as caused by the change of tension. The problem of lifting and lowering the cage together, or simultaneously, with the disk that rises and falls in the gas holder cannot be solved with any of the known devices.

The invention is illustrated diagrammatically and by way of example on the accompanying drawings in which Figure l is a vertical section through a side of a gas holder with vertically movable disk and a cage and accessories designed 95 according to this invention; Figure 2 is a separate view of said accessories, in combination with a switch and a wiring diagram, and Figure 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing a modification.

In a closed winch cabin C located upon the 100 roof 6 of the holder a is housed a winch is (Fig.

1) from which a rope d runs over a roll I supported upon the roof of the holder. The rope extends downwardly into the holder and from it is suspended the cage g, which can be lowered 105 upon the sealing disk h which is provided with an elastically supported platform 1 serving as support for the cage. Instead of this elastic platform elastic supporting means may be provided at the bottom of the cage. Although it is 110 not indispensably requisite to provide said elastic means at the one or the other place, it is preferably provided in order to prevent violent shocks.

It is also possible to combine the interior lift with an exterior one serving for the transport of persons from the ground to the roof of the holder, and reversely. This is the case in Fig. 3, in which figure c denotes the winch cabin which is supported upon the top of the outer lift structure b.

If the cage rests upon the supporting platform i and the disk It is moved upwardly or downwardly, then in the first of these cases the tension of the rope will be decreased and in the other case it will be increased, as will be obvious. These changes of the tensions are used for controlling the winch in such a manner that the cage follows instantly the movements of the disk.

The arrangement and combination of parts designed for this purpose are shown in Fig. 2 in which, just as in Figs. 1 and 3, g denotes the cage, (1 the rope, and f the guide roll for the rope, the other end of which is attached to the winch drum is. Z and m are rolls, of which 2 is stationary and m is vertically movable. This roll may assume several positions, of which three are indicated by I, II and III; it is attached to a lever n which is supported on a pivot o and is loaded with a weight 13. The lever 11. is connected with an electric switch r by means of a rod q. Besides the switch r a separate control switch 3 is provided. The arrangement and combination of these parts are such that the switch 1' lies in an electric circuit which is supplied with current when the cage is to move downwardly. t denotes the motor associated with the winch, and acting directly upon the same as indicated by the connecting shaft 11. in Fig. 2. It is assumed that the motor t is supplied with threephase current from the net through the three leads v v v Supposing that the control switch 5 be in the down -position when the cage has left the roof station, the manner of operation will be as follows:

As long as the cage g is suspended from the rope d and this rope is subjected to the full weight of the cage, the roll m is in the position indicated by I. The switch 1" is then in the down -pos ition, and if at this time also the control switch is in this position, as has been assumed, the cage will move downwardly. When the cage arrives upon the platform 1', the rope will be relieved from the pull and will slacken whereby the roll m will sink, for instance, into the position II. This movement is transmitted by the rod q to the switching device r in such a manner that this is moved into its zero position whereby the winch is brought to a standstill, as is, consequently, the cage also.

Now, as the amount of gas in the holder varies practically continuously, in that it increases at one time and decreases at another time, the disk It is either lifted or lowered, as the case may be.

When the disk 71. moves downwardly, the tension in the rope increases and the roll m is lifted into the position I whereby the switching de vice is moved into that position in which the cage is lowered, that is to say, the cage follows the disk h, and when the latter has come to a standstill, the rope slackens again and the roll m assumes again the position II. This action or follow-up movement proceeds as long as the disk moves downwardly, the cage remaining ractically always in contact with it by the intermediary of the platform 2.

If the disk is, however, lifted (together with the cage) the rope is so much slackened that the roll m sinks into the position III whereby the switching device r is so adjusted that the winch now exerts a pull upon the rope. The several positions of the switching device can be clearly ascertained from Fig. 2. The switch s, however, is not actuated but remains in the down -position. The reversal of the motor and, thus, of the winch is effected solely by the switch r. When the winch has commenced to exert a pull upon the rope, such pull lasts only so long until the roll m has been lifted from the position III into the position II, in which the supply of current is again interrupted. This upward movement of the cage continues so long as the disk rises. If the disk rises and falls alternately, the cage movements described also alternate with one another, and the effect in either case is that the cage remains in contact with the disk h, as is desired.

When, finally, after the work to be done on the disk has been finished, the man in the winch cabin adjusts the control switch 8 to the upposition, whereupon the motor runs in the direction in which the cage is lifted from the disk to the roof of the holder. When, later on, the cage must again be lowered upon the disk, this movement also is brought about by the cabin man by a suitable adjustment of the switch 5, this switch remaining then, for the time being, in the downposition, and the followup movements will be accurately the same as above described.

Instead of employing a weight as load for the rope a spring may be used, whereby, since a spring does not depend upon gravity for its action, the possibility is presented of inserting the fiat loop (by which term I mean the straight rope portion located between the roll f and the winch drum is) into an inclined run of the rope or into a vertical run by suitably guiding the rope from the pulley f to the drum k. It is, finally, also possible to actuate the roll m not directly by the cage rope, but by an auxiliary rope extending parallel to the cage rope and being guided in the same manner.

I claim:

1. A passenger lift for disk gas holders, comprising, in combination with an internal cage adapted to be moved from the top of the holder to the disk, and reversely, a suspension rope for said cage, a winch, and a motor therefor; a switch mechanism operatively associated with said rope to be actuated by the changes of tension in said rope taking place when the cage, while in contact with said disk, moves upwardly or downwardly together with the same, and electrical circuits for said motor selectively controlled by said switch mechanism in accordance with changes in the tension in said rope, to cause the winch to take up automatically the slack in the rope as the disk is lifted and to lower the cage automatically when the disk is lowered in correspondence with the speed of the same without coming out of contact with it.

2. A passenger lift for disk gas holders, comprising, in combination, a cage adapted to be moved from the top of the holder to the disk, and reversely, a suspension rope for said cage, means contacting with said rope and adapted to respond to changes of tension in the same; a winch and a motor therefor; switch mechanism connected with said means and adapted to be actuated by the same according to the degree of tension and of slackening of the rope, and electrical circuits for said motor selectively controlled by said switch mechanism in accordance with changes in the tension of said rope, so that in the case of normal tension in the rope and a corresponding position of the means contacting with the same, downward movement of the cage is initiated, at a certain moderate degree of slackening of the rope the cage is stopped, and at a higher degree of slackening of the rope lifting of the cage is initiated.

3. A passenger lift for disk gas holders, comprising, in combination, a cage adapted to be moved from the top of the holder to the disk, and reversely, a suspension rope for said cage, means contacting with said rope and adapted to respond to changes of tension in the same; a winch and a motor therefor; switch mechanism connected with said means and adapted to be actuated by the same according to the degree of tension and of slackening in the rope, and electrical circuits for said motor selectively controlled by said switch mechanism in accordance with changes in the tension in said rope, so that in the case of normal tension in the rope and a corresponding position of the means contacting with the same, downward movement of the cage is initiated, at a certain moderate degree of slackness in the rope the cage is stopped, and at a higher degree of slackening of the rope lifting of the cage is initiated; and a manually operable control switch adapted to serve for starting and reversing said motor and being connected in series with the first-mentioned switch, and located in that circuit which serves for the downward movement of the cage.

4. A passenger lift for disk gas holders, comprising, in combination, a cage adapted to be or downwardly together with the same, electrical circuits for said motor selectively controlled by said switch mechanism in accordance with changes in the tension in said rope, to cause the winch to take up automatically the slack in the rope as the disk is lifted and to lower the cage automatically when the disk is lowered in correspondence with the speed of the same without coming out of contact with it; and an elastic platform provided on said disk and adapted to serve as support for the cage.

5. A passenger lift for disk gas holders, comprising in combination, a cage adapted to move from the top of the holder to the disk, and reversely, a suspension rope for said cage, a winch upon which said rope is wound, a motor for said winch, switch mechanism associated with said motor to control the direction of rotation of the same, and controlling mechanism responsive to the upward and downward movements of said disk when the cage is resting thereon and operatively associated with the switch mechanism to regulate said switch mechanism to effect rotation of the motor in one or the other direction to maintain a tension in said rope sufficient to keep the same taut but less than is imposed by the full weight of the cage, whereby said cage follows the movements of the disk without being lifted therefrom and can be returned to the roof by the winch without shock to the rope or roof structure due to slack in the rope.

ALFRED LORENTZ. 

